


Storytelling

by AraSigyrn



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician)
Genre: M/M, birthday fic, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 14:59:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/574548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AraSigyrn/pseuds/AraSigyrn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Fairytale Story inspired by Labyrinth, written for akaVertigo's b-day and only a little late?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storytelling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akaVertigo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akaVertigo/gifts).



> Betaed by the awesome deannawol. Remaining mistakes are, as ever, my own.

"My will is as strong as yours," Kris says steadily. "My spirit is as great. You have no power over me."

*/*/*

Kris' first time was probably when he was a baby. He never knows for sure but he remembers a dream of a world where the shadows played around him and Kris remembers, very clearly, that they had been brightly colored although he doesn't remember how those colors had looked. It's something he just remembers.

He doesn't even have anyone to ask - his mom smiles vaguely and tells him that he was such a quiet baby, that there were days when he wouldn't make a peep. Kris decides, when he's eight and a half and he's writing down the things he knows he needs to remember, that it did start then. If it wasn't true before, it's true now.

*/*/*

Kris learns _his_ name when he's five. He has a brother now, Daniel who is mostly a small blobby crying thing, and Kris mostly thinks he's boring. Still, Daniel is _his_ brother and when the Goblins steal him away, Kris doesn't hesitate. He takes the blackthorn stick from his grandpa's room and the small stone with a hole worn through it by the ocean with a red string through it.

Kris goes downstairs and packs his school bag with sandwiches (they all have to be ham because Kris can't reach the cupboard with the peanut butter) and three juice boxes. He also takes the net bag of peaches. _He_ likes fruit. He likes berries too but they don't have them and Kris doesn't know any grown up that likes the yoghurts his momma makes him take to school. They don't have any honey except for the sachets in the drawer and Kris takes all of them.

He goes outside, picks one of the trees and starts to walk.

It's a cypress tree which Kris didn't know the name for but when he rips open one of the sachets, Cheeks comes spiraling out of the sky to land on his shoulder and gobble it all up. Kris likes Cheeks - who has another name but doesn't tell him what it is - and Cheeks, he thinks, likes him back.

Certainly, it would take Kris a very long time to get to the Labyrinth and even longer to get to the Castle at the Edge of the Night if Cheeks didn't help him. It isn't hard to be friends with Cheeks - mostly he wants admiration and honey and a big hood to hide in when the winds howl and tear at the tops of the trees. Kris knows Cheeks is a good person and he knows that it doesn't matter that Cheeks is four inches and a half tall because Cheeks is fierce and brave and loyal. And pretty. Much prettier than the girl fairies.

Kris walks and Cheeks talks and they have adventures and they get to the Castle, worn but triumphant and Kris climbs the stairs. There are always a lot of stairs in the Castle and this time, Kris can hear Daniel crying in the background and he's so tired.

"Kristopher," _he_ steps out of the shadows and Kris thinks that even in a Castle that is this big, _he_ seems impossibly huge. _He_ smiles and holds out his arms and Kris hugs back and breathes in the quick-silver scent of magic.

_He_ delights over the peaches and they sit in the big black and red throne and Kris tells _him_ all about school and his bike and how he's learning the viola which is not a violin, although it looks like it and how he's looking forward to Little Leagues.

Finally, Kris looks at the big clock. "My mom will be looking for us. Thank you very much for having us, but we need to go home."

"You could stay," _he_ says because _he_ always says that and Kris always says,

"My mom will miss me and I have school in the morning," though it hasn't always been school. When Kris was a kindergartener, it was the walk to the park or the playground. Kris has a lot of excuses. "I have had a really nice time but Daniel's going to be stinky soon and mom will be worried if he isn't there for dinner."

"Such a good heart," _he_ says and kisses Kris' forehead. _He_ 's the only one aside from Kris' momma and his grandma who kisses Kris but Kris doesn't say that. _He_ might stop. "Very well, Kristopher, I will send you both back."

Kris has to carry Daniel but that's okay because his dad showed him how to. He holds Daniel up so _he_ can see and says seriously, "This is my brother, Daniel. Daniel, this is..."

And he stutters because _he_ doesn't have a name. Not that Kris knows. Kris doesn't ever think of _him_ by name because _he_ is too big, too many things to be wrapped up in just one name. But _he_ bows - the careful formal bow that Kris can't manage properly - and says easily.

"Adam. You needn't bother with the titles."

*/*/*

When Kris is nine, his best friend in the world is Cale Mills. They both like music enough to put up with the inevitable teasing. Cale is the first friend Kris has who fits into the different parts of Kris' life.

The day after Kris' ninth birthday, Adam steals his baseball.

It's a present from his dad, something that belonged to his grandfather and Kris is angry. That's why he doesn't take proper care when he goes running headlong into the Fairylands. He doesn't realize Cale is right behind him until it's too late.

It's not one of his better adventures. Cale falls into the Well and it's really Cheeks' doing but it's still Kris' fault. When he tries to get Cale out the spell goes horribly wrong somehow. Kris never figures out how it went wrong but the end result is Cale comes out of the well with shaggy fur and big long arms. He grows horns before one of the spells Cheeks and Kris throw at him make the change stop actually works.

Cale seems okay with it. Kris isn't.

Kris is even less okay when Adam tries to tell him that Cale's meant to look like that.

"Not everything in a human skin belongs there," Adam says and Kris would punch him if he could reach that high. "Here, in the lands between, you are what you are meant to be."

Kris does punch him. Only in the knee but he punches him and Adam tells him that it's okay, once they go back, Cale will be a boy again. 

"Only in this land," Adam promises, fingers cupped around the sparkly glittery light that he calls up whenever he needs it. "Only under these stars. But _always_ under this sky."

Cale figures it out before Kris does - they both go home and Cale stretches to his puny human height and says "I wanna go back. I don't like being here, like this."

"Going back won't change you," Kris argues.

"It wouldn't change you," Cale says after thinking for a minute with his face all scrunched up. "You're always Kris."

Kris wonders who else he's supposed to be and Cale shakes his head in frustration.

"I can't explain it," he complains. "I know that I'm...different there so I'll always be different there. You're always a little different everywhere."

It hurts a little but Kris doesn't argue. This is where it starts.

*/*/*

Between the ages of nine and fourteen, Kris collects experiences. The pattern - because there is, there must be, a pattern - isn't something he can work out but it happens around his birthday and it always happens. He can't bring anything except the fruit that Adam would want because Adam doesn't like Kris' world. It's not something he ever says - because Adam doesn't ever say anything like that and Kris mostly thinks Adam does it to make Kris do all the work of figuring out why he's upset - but Kris can tell.

He doesn't want a GameBoy - Kris doesn't really understand why until Cale points out that Adam's actual home is like, a hundred times cooler than even a Zelda game - or anything that Kris has. But Adam gets this hungry look when Kris talks about the world outside his kingdom.

So Kris collects experiences.

He sneaks into a rock concert with Cale when he's ten. It's loud and muggy and dark and the music isn't just sound - it's the vibration in the air and the shifting crowd around them. Kris comes back with a ripped shirt and a black eye and the buzz of guitars humming under his skin.

He goes to all the Christmas concerts with his mom and grandma. He gets candy for being a good boy which is nice but mostly Kris is trying to remember how it feels to listen to the orchestra and how all the instruments play together.

His mom loves to cook and Kris starts to hang out around the kitchen. He learns the feel of dough between his knuckles, the dry smell of flour, the crisp texture of a marinated chicken breast and the way flavor can be layered and blended. He learns how fresh bread tastes, still warm from the oven.

He goes gardening with Ms Wilcox from church to learn about the earth and the plants. Kris keeps all the seeds she gives him in a little paper envelope and when Adam steals his stories, Kris brings all the clippings and seeds with him. The path through the trees brings him to the Forest folk. 

Since Adam's only ever interested in peaches, Kris offers the Queen of the Wood 'Twixt Earth and Sky the seeds. She likes them a lot more than Kris expects her to. Cale carries Kris to the Castle with an army behind them. A very loyal army, despite Kris' best efforts to make them please, please, _please_ go away.

Adam laughs for hours.

*/*/*

Kris starts having dreams just as puberty hits. He's had dreams of Adam before but the sudden influx of hormones makes the dreams a whole lot more interesting. Kris dreams of Adam, like he always has, but these dreams are different. These dreams are awkward and Kris wakes without remembering the details, just the hot and bothered feeling and the sticky feeling that means he has to wash his sheets.

Adam doesn't steal anything this year.

Kris' birthday goes past and nothing happens. Cale circles him for most of summer vacation but nothing happens. Kris can't get through the space that divides the world unless he's following something (he thinks) and if Adam doesn't take anything, Kris can't follow it.

By Hallow'een, Kris is nearly sick with worry. Cale is the only person he can talk to about it but Cale relies on Kris' knowing things about the Labyrinth and he's kinda crap at being reassuring. Kris doesn't blame him, he just can't help the grey fog that swallows him up.

Is this what growing up means? Giving up the trips to the Labyrinth where the world is dark and colorful and the Castle on the Edge of Night? Being too small even when the ache and strain of growing makes him want to curl under the covers and cry? Having a voice that wobbles and cracks when he tries to sing? Being always hot and embarrassed and aching for something that doesn't exist and never will?

On All Hallows Eve, Conway is invaded by one of the UnSeelie Courts.

Kris knows about the UnSeelie - when he was three and had trouble walking and had to rely on Cheeks and Sir Alistair Amberworth (the Noble/Brave) to get him through the Labyrinth, one of them tried to steal him. She had been very beautiful, in the way a knife is beautiful or a skull is; beauty through the contrast of what she was and what she wanted him to see.

Adam had been furious. 

She'd touched him, Kris remembers as he pants for breath behind an overgrown gravestone, and the whole Labyrinth had turned savage and spiteful. A horn - Adam's war trumpet, Kris learned much later - blared out in the sudden silence. The walls had pelted her with stones. The ivy had tripped her up. The dogs with the flaming eyes came snarling out of the shadows. Kris doesn't remember what happened to her, just that Adam - not that he'd known that was his name back then - had been there suddenly, just as Kris started to cry. Adam picked him up and took him back to dance and play with the Goblins until it was time for Kris to go home.

Kris has seen Adam angry. He's seen Adam at his wrathful worst but Kris has never been afraid of Adam.

He's afraid of the slick grey shapes that are hunting him now.

He's afraid that he won't catch his breath in time. He's afraid that he won't be able to run. He's afraid of their long yellow teeth and hollow eyes. He's afraid that he's going to die and more afraid that he won't. In Fairy, there are so many things worse than death. He's afraid that there's nowhere left to run and no-one who will think to miss him.

He's afraid and he wishes, sharp and sudden, that Adam had stolen something from him: that Kris' last memories of the Castle weren't going to be faded and blurry.

Then he hears the horn...

*/*/*  
The last thing that Adam steals is his music.

There's no warning, Kris just wakes with a numbing silence in his soul and he just shakes for a few seconds before rage comes pouring in to fill the void.

Adam, beautiful Adam, bewitching Adam, and oh, Kris hates him for this. He's nineteen years old. He's leaving on a mission trip in four days and Kris is so angry that he thinks he might kill someone. Cale, loyal and ruthless when he has to be, comes running over with Kris' sword.

This time, it isn't a game. It's a goddamn war. Kris has to fight the Labyrinth, fight the Kingdom and fight time itself. Adam never comes to guide him. He taunts Kris, tricks him and traps him and Kris hates him so hard that it feels like a fire in his belly.

In the end, Kris finds his music in the battered guitar in the heart of the twisting staircase. Adam is watching, blue eyes in the darkness and Kris shouts at him, lets the rage boil up and spill out in an angry torrent of words. Adam sneers back.

"Why?" he asks at last, when the anger's dimmed and he's so tired that he can barely keep his head up.

"I took only what was due to me," Adam says stiffly. Kris feels his shoulders slump and he takes up the guitar, turning back towards the door. "Kristopher, I-"

"I have to go home," Kris says without looking back. 

He almost doesn't notice how the Castle gets a little darker, the colors that little bit more muted as he leaves.

*/*/*

Kris is twenty-one, sitting at his momma's table and looking down at the letters and forms and pages. There are two (three) paths in front of him and Kris has to make a choice. His momma has left him alone to think with two racks of cookies cooling on the counter. Kris looks around the house and thinks of all the times he told Adam that he had to go home. 

When he was a kid, his mom and dad kept him close. They loved him and they protected him and Kris thinks they did a pretty good job raising him.

He's not a kid any more.

Cale comes in the back door without knocking, though he does take his shoes off. He also takes six cookies and sits down opposite Kris to munch on them. He looks intently at the forms. Cale doesn't say anything. The silence between them stretches out. Kris can hear the traffic on the road outside and the sound of voices.

"If-" he starts and Cale looks up.

"Man, you already know that the answer's gonna be yes."

Kris smiles at him and gathers all the papers up in a messy heap that he leaves on the desk in his room. He takes his grandfather's blackthorn, the stone with the hole in it and the necklace of flowers. He takes his guitar, older and often repaired but still sound and he takes the peaches from the fruit bowl. He takes his mother's sweetness, his father's faith and the love that they never stinted. He takes the promise of return and the memories that he treasures. He takes the knowledge that all children must eventually grow and leaving is simply part of life.

He takes all the things that are his.

With his best friend at his shoulder, Kris starts to walk and the paths between the world and the Kingdom open up for them.

*/*/*

"You have no power over me," Kris repeats and sees Adam flinch. He wonders again how much Adam hid from him, how much Kris never looked for and never saw. Kris steps forward and Adam draws himself up, too thin and too bitter but fiercely proud to the end. "No power to compel, no power to enchant-"

"No power to bind," Adam says bitterly. "No power to hold."

Kris looks up at him and sees the King of Goblins and Wishes and Dreams. Adam is so very old, Kris knows, for all that he looks young and beautiful.

"Kristopher," Adam says wearily. "Never have I held power over you. Can the rose claim mastery over the sun?"

"You have no power over me," Kris says, a third time for the charm. "Save that I give willingly."

He kisses Adam in the throne room, with all the world watching. He kisses Adam as he's always wanted to. He kisses Adam and feels the stirring heat as Adam kisses him right back.


End file.
